Posted on 10/04/2005 3:28:28 PM PDT by CreviceTool
John O’Neill Houston, Texas
Dear Friend,
Last year, when my fellow Swift Boat veterans and I spoke out about John Kerry, you rallied to our side. We will never forget your faith in our cause and your belief in our honesty. It made all the difference. Together we made history.
Like most of you, I believed our mission was over. We could all move on with our lives, return to our families and homes secure in the knowledge we had done the right thing for America, and for our children’s future.
Regrettably, that has not been the case for a distinguished group of Vietnam combat veterans who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us during last year’s campaign. Their situation has become so critical that I felt compelled to break our long silence to inform you of this urgent matter.
The Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, an organization founded by some of the same POWs and their wives who joined with us to form Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth, has become the target of vicious legal assaults – multiple lawsuits designed to silence the voices of the POWs.
The VVLF is being sued to punish the organization for the content of the POW documentary Stolen Honor, which contrasts their own accounts of their service in Vietnam and suffering in North Vietnamese prison camps with the claims of the antiwar movement.
They desperately need our help and I am asking, once more, for your support. I urge you to give what you can to assist these truly noble men and women.
It is no accident that this campaign to coerce and silence some of America’s most heroic figures from the Vietnam War has intensified just as the shrill voices of the extreme Left’s anti-military, blame-America-first propagandists are once again on the rise. Even Jane Fonda has resurfaced.
You might ask why the VVLF has been targeted in this legal assault – why attack men who endured years of unspeakable torture and suffering in defense of America? The answer lies in the question. These are among the most credible, living eyewitnesses to the trail of deceit and betrayal. All are highly decorated and each bears the scars and permanent physical disabilities of his long years in captivity. One is the recipient of our nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor. They paid for the right to voice their opinions with years of indescribable pain, hardship and torment. Their individual histories of perseverance under the direst of circumstances, and their fidelity to the principles of honor instilled in each American serving in uniform belie the despicable slanders laid at the feet of our military.
The POWs' very existence and their willingness to go public threaten the foundation of the Left’s propaganda, a lifetime of lies that accuse the U.S. military of being no better than the “armies of Genghis Khan.” It remains the Left’s most potent weapon as they continue to undermine the efforts of our Armed Forces and provide aid and comfort to America’s enemies.
The war for America’s conscience and soul rages on in the media, on the streets and quietly behind courtroom doors. In the vanguard of that battle, as they were some 40 years ago, are the POWs; some of America’s greatest heroes; men and their wives, fathers and mothers, many of them grandparents, who have already paid a heavy price for their loyalty and devotion to America and, sadly, find they must do so again today.
They deserve our respect, admiration and gratitude, but most of all our support, even as they try to protect and preserve the honor and reputations of an entire generation of American troops vilified by the extreme Left.
Won’t you stand up once more to defend our troops and veterans? Please give what you can to help the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation continue the still-unfinished task of setting the record straight about the Vietnam War and Vietnam vets.
This is every bit as important as our effort last year. If you’d like to stay informed about the VVLF’s ongoing work, please sign up for updates here.
Thank you again and God bless you and America.
Sincerely,
John O’Neill
I got John's email yesterday but thanks for reminding me. Payment on the way soon...
John O’Neill of Swift Boat Vets ~ Bump!
Donated BTTT.
Great cause .. I got this email as well. Someone needs to tell them their 'donate' button is not working on their website!! (donate option at bottom of page on right)
http://www.vvlf.org/default.php?page_id=29
Looks like the 'donate' button 'healed' so for a quick way to donate, use the above link.
BTTT. Thank for the ping. The lawsuit link was posted in another thread:
http://www.vvlf.org/documents/Sherwood_and_VVLF_v_Kerry.pdf
Just sent my contribution to VVLF.
Kerry just couldn't leave it alone, could he?
I can see Kerry getting two-thirds in the Senate (which gagged the House Managers to save Clinton), but not in the House. This lawsuit could well be his Waterloo.
You could make my day (Month, year...) by explaining exactly how that might be so :o)
I think that you underestimate the power of a senator. I'd love to see that happen too, but the flow of evidence in court is totally controlled by the judge.
That's what they said to John O'Neill last year.
We stood by the Swifties in 2004 and they delivered. I have every reason to believe these men will do so again.
So I DO hope you're right. The sheer IRONY of that happening is too delicious, to even contemplate.
My only fear, or reservation, in all of this, is that you may have failed to properly account for the 'teflon factor' (...wherein SOME people simply never have to pay the price for their transgressions, but instead get off with a mere wrist-slap, if that. Kennedy... Leahy... Byrd... Billary... Hill... Torricelli... Berger... to name a few examples , before even MENTIONING 'aid-and-comfort', and the 'T'-word in connection with Fonda and Kerry.)
Oh, I do SO hope YOU are right and I am wrong...
Well, it's entirely possible that Kerry will go on being a Senator from Massachusetts for many years after this all blows over. And I've got to agree that it would be deliciously ironic if he got his head handed to him in a fight he didn't even need to start. Doubly so, since that's exactly how he lost the 2004 election (IMO) -- he made his service record, the weakest spot in his whole life, the center piece of his campaign. A man who does that has a blind spot and somehow I don't think he's learned from the experience.
...and, after he (Kerry) did all that FOR us, what does that say about us, we who cannot seem to even' pull down the wounded ones?' That the 2004 election was as close as it was, speaks volumes to how far we, as a country, have fallen. Kerry may have been the exception which proves the below 'rule', but sadly, certainly not by much.
"No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby." --H. L. Mencken
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